Cella
by downpours
Summary: They've been bestfriends her whole life, and he realized how important she would be after she... bit him.


_**Cella**_

_**One-shot**_

_A pink bow—_

"Trance, this is your new playmate. Her name's Tracie."

"She's just a little baby, plus she's a girl. She can't be my playmate."

His mother laughed, and so did Tracie's mom who was holding the infant in her arms. Trance looked at the baby skeptically.

"Quiet, Trance, she might understand you!" His mother scolded. Trance was only three years old then, but he was as stubborn as ever.

"How can she understand me? She's just a tiny baby!"

Just then, the pink bow on her head fell down. "Trance, can you place it back, please?" Tracie's mother asked. Trance shrugged and leaned down to get it, and he gingerly reached up to the baby's face when—

"Ouch!"

"Trance?" His mother blinked.

"She bit me!"

_A little doll—_

"Mom, Trance won't give me my doll back!" Tracie whined.

"Shut up, you tattletale!" Trance hissed, keeping the doll out of reach.

"Give it baaack!"

"Now, look at you." Trance's mother approached them and sighed. "Trance, give it back and get back to training!"

Little Tracie started laughing. "A fabre scratched him and he got all whiney, so he came all the way back here. Hahaha, what a baby!"

Trance growled and threw the doll to the top of his drawer. Tracie looked shocked and flapped her five year old hands around as Trance said, "You're not getting that back!"

_A Poring Doll—_

"Thanks, Trance!" A eight-year old novice said, taking the pink poring doll in her arms. In front of her, a young eleven year old swordsman scratched the back of his head.

"It's no problem. The poring dropped it."

"Trance!"

"What?" He replied, shocked. She had called his name so suddenly.

"You're bleeding!"

"It's just a stupid scratch."

"Haha!"

"What?" Trance beckoned. She had started laughing at him again.

"You're still too weak! I heard that really strong knights can banish porings with just one woosh!"

He scratched the back of his neck and laughed sheepishly. "Yeah, I guess I'm still weak… you don't have to rub it in."

"Don't worry, Trance!"

"Huh?"

"I'm going to become an acolyte, so I can aid you!"

He stared at her weirdly. That night, she came over and left the doll in his room by accident. He never remembered to give it back.

_Another pink bow—_

"Trance, I'm an acolyte now! Look!"

"Yeah, I can see that."

She pouted and put her hands on either side of her waist. Tracie was wearing her uniform now, with a pink bow on her hair. "Trance, at least be happy for me!"

"Yeah, sure." He replied sarcastically, taunting her.

_A note that said, "It's okay, I'll always be here for you"—_

"Hank, stop it!"

The hug man punched Trance, square on the face. The young fifteen-year old choked blood and knelt helplessly on the floor.

"Didn't I tell you to become an assassin?" The man bellowed, kicking him when he was already down. "I leave for years and come back to see you a pathetic swordsman?"

"Hank! STOP!" Trance's mother shrieked, trying to shield her son away from her rampaging father.

He pushed her aside roughly and continued beating his son. The man stopped when he was already half-dead.

"Hank… please…" Trance's mother sobbed, raising one of her hands.

"If you cast a healing spell on him, I swear I'll beat you up too."

Then came knocking on the door, and the voice of a twelve-year old acolyte. She opened it right after she knocked, as if knocking was just a habit she did, since she knew she was always welcome in the house. "Trance, are you alright? Mother asked me to come check."

Tracie gasped at what she saw. The man growled at the young acolyte and pushed her aside as he left the house. That was the first and last time Trance ever saw his father.

The young acolyte watched in horror as Trance's mom, sobbing, healed her son. He stood up, staggering, still out of balance. He looked so frightened.

"Trance…" Tracie whispered, reaching a hand to hold his shoulder.

He roughly swat her hand away and ran up the stairs, banging the door to his room behind him.

Trance didn't even come to dinner. The next morning, when he woke up, there was a note beside his bed.

_Another note. It said, "And thank you for always being there for me."—_

Her older sister had passed away on a mission to Glast Heim. Tracie had locked herself up in her room, even her own mother couldn't come in to see her. She refused to talk to anybody.

A familiar knock came on her door, "Tracie, it's me, Trance!"

"Go away."

"I'm a knight now."

"I don't care."

Silence. He said softly, through wood, "Didn't you say you wanted to be the first one to congratulate me? I didn't even let my mom see me yet."

Trance gave a sigh of relief as he heard footsteps, and an acolyte opened the wooden door, which separated them. Her eyes were still red from crying.

"LIAR! You're still a swordsman!"

He grinned. "Yeah, I know." Then he slowly approached her and hugged her around the shoulders. "I just wanted an excuse to hug you."

_A muffler that had his name on it, and a heart next to it—_

"Man, that acolyte is one piece of—"

"Shut up." One of their companions said. "That's Trance's best friend. I tried hitting on her before, then he beat me half to death."

The wizard looked at Trance, who was seated on the far-end of the bench. Trance looked back at him with a skeptical look.

"If she's your best friend, then you've got nothing to be jealous about." The wizard said.

"Yeah, but you're not worthy of her."

The wizard smirked. He said sarcastically, "I assume you're the only one worthy of her?"

"Yes." He replied bluntly.

Just then, the girl they were talking about ran up to them. She was holding some kind of clothing in her hands.

"Trance, Merry Christmas!"

Trance blinked as she put the muffler around his shoulders, his face going red when her blonde hair tickled his cheeks.

"Hey, introduce us!" The wizard nudged Trance.

"Shut up!"

Tracie blinked. Trance never did allow her to speak to any men, he said that were all 'worthless of her time'.

_A handkerchief, drenched in blood—_

"I thought I told you to stay away?" Trance yelled.

Tracie sobbed; she was kneeling on the floor and her face was buried in her frail hands.

"C'mon, she looked so… well, you know! You're a guy!" The wizard chuckled.

This angered Trance even more. He was so angry. Tracie's first kiss was reserved for him—at least that's how he saw it.

Tracie, frightened, lifted her face to see the knight and wizard fighting. She wanted to stop them, yet… she also wanted the wizard beaten half to death. Was it so bad for an acolyte to want that?

The second time she lifted her face, the wizard had retreated. What a coward—he didn't seem to hesitant to take her first kiss, though. She ran to Trance, who was panting and drenched in blood.

"Trance, let me heal you…"

He rummaged in his shirt and brought out a handkerchief. "I know it's drenched in blood, but you can wipe your tears if you want."

"Yeah." She smiled. "I will."

_A circlet—_

"What is it?" Tracie asked. Trance was covering her eyes. She was now seventeen years old and was finally wearing a Priestess's uniform. "Trance, I'm getting scared!"

"Give me your circlet."

"Wha—is this Trance or some stalker?"

Trance rolled his eyes and grabbed the circlet out of her hair. He faced her towards the direction of the table, where a tiara lay. It looked very vibrant and… expensive.

"Oh!" Tracie gasped. "Trance, that must've caused you a fortune!"

"Happy birthday." He grinned.

Trance's eyes widened as the smaller person suddenly tackled him, just like she used to when they were little kids. She was still as light as ever, though.

"Trance, thank you!" Tracie said, chuckling. She hugged him tightly, his head leaning against the wall. "You're the best friend anyone could ever ask for!"

"…uh-huh."

_Pink Sand in a Bottle—_

"What are you doing?" Trance looked at his best friend weirdly.

She pouted. "What does it look like I'm doing?"

"You're collecting sand and putting it in a bottle."

"Correct!"

"Why?" He blinked. They were on the shores of Comodo, and the sun was setting.

"Because… because for memories! Duh!"

He rolled his eyes.

"This one's for you." She shoved a bottle of sand in his hands.

"Err… thanks."

She smiled and looked towards the horizon. "Comodo's so pretty!"

"Yeah." Trance said. "Just like you."

Tracie went red instantly and started stuttering. She glanced at him quickly. "W-what?"

But he was already running back to their cottage, laughing all the way.

_A shirt, freshly washed because it had been drenched a couple of days before—_

"I'm falling in love with you." Said a soft voice.

"Huh?" Trance blinked and looked at his best friend of eighteen years. He was twenty-one now, though, but she had been there only eighteen years.

"You heard me!" She laughed.

He blinked, not really taking it all in.

"Happy April Fool's!" Tracie grinned, pushing him into the water. There was a loud splash and a sputtering knight emerged, looking flushed. "Man, you should've seen your face."

"You play dirty, damn it."

_A Smokie Doll and note that said, "Please talk to me again, I was just kidding!"—_

"It wasn't a very funny joke." He said crossly at the doll that waited on his doorstep. The knight didn't even think he could be heard.

"I wasn't joking, though." Said a voice before him. He looked up. Standing there was a priestess with a smile that had melted his heart everyday since eighteen years ago when she bit him.

He blinked, just like before.

_And, a note that was inside the smokie's mouth._

He read it over and over again. The knight's chest was beating so loudly.

The Priestess grinned and tackled him, just like always. She was laughing so hard and hugged him around the chest, leaning her cheeks against his loudly beating heart.

"Whoa." She whispered.

"You do know that the first time I met you, you bit me, right?" He said to her, hugging her petite form.

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, you never let me forget about that."

"And you remember that time that stupid wizard kissed you?"

"Yeah, and you helped me forget that one… though, I never really did." She smiled. "But, thanks."

He laughed and kissed her, but on the space between her lips and her cheeks, just on the corner of her mouth.

"Hey!"

"There, now I have the second kiss."

She giggled and hugged her best friend, and it took her eighteen years, two months and three days to realize she was in love with him. It only took _him _a few moments, right after she bit him. He had always said he wanted to fall in love with someone "with spirit."

_And, finally, a room of memories—_

"Trance, hurry up! We'll be late for the parade!"

"Wait!" Trance replied crossly. He stood up and looked at the room. He was cleaning it out when he realized that there were so many things he kept to remind himself one thing—

He was in love with her.

When he shut the door, there was a note nailed on it with the handwriting of a girl. The same note that she placed in the smokie's mouth.

_There are so many things to be thankful when you have a guy best friend._

_You have to be thankful that you know someone who knows you even more than you do._

_He'd beat the hell out of all those perverts._

_Someone who understands all your problems and knows just what to say._

_And of course, someone to fall in love with._

_And it won't even be weird, because you've known him all your life._

_Thanks, Trance._

_**A/N:**_

_Well, I knooow it's weird and cliché-ish, okay? _

_Just thought I'd take a break from Second Glance. ;D_


End file.
